For Walter Mondale, the frustration mounted at each stop.
From a VIP lounge at the Baltimore-Washington airport, he put in a
telephone call to Lane Kirkland, only to be told that he was away from
his office. Mondale tried twice more, from the Columbus airport, and
finally reached the AFL-CIO president. Mixing sternness with pleading,
he told Kirkland to halt the flow of money that unions were funneling
into Mondale's effort through supposedly independent groups called
"delegate committees." Said the former Vice President:
"I really...